Magnet Hunt: SnapThought Prompts
Have your students signed up for individual accounts? If you have a school-wide subscription to BrainPOP, students will be able to use our SnapThought ® tool to play Magnet Hunt!
The SnapThought tool allows students to capture meaningful moments in their game play with opportunities for brief written reflection. To use the tool, start by making sure students are logged into My BrainPOP with their own individual accounts. Once students are logged in, the SnapThought tool will appear below any games that offer this capability.
During game play, students can click the SnapThought tool up to five times. A thumbnail, or “snapshot” is generated and stored on the bottom left of the screen. At any point in the game, students can click their snapshot(s), type a brief reflection, which may be a response to an open-ended prompt, and save or submit to the teacher’s account for you to review and respond to.
You can use the SnapThought tool to facilitate discussion around game play and strategies, or have students submit their snapshots to you for assessment or accountability. Here are a few ideas and prompts for using the SnapThought tool in Magnet Hunt.
- In “Playground” mode, drag all six compasses to different positions around the magnet. Take a snapshot. What do you notice about where the compasses’ needles are pointing? How do the red and blue sides of the compass needles relate to the red and blue sides of the magnet?
- In “Game” mode, drag all six compasses to different positions in the dirt. Click the “Guess” option, and drag the north and south pins to where you think each pole of the buried magnet is located. Take a snapshot, and explain your guesses.
- Submit your guess, and then take a snapshot of your results. How close were your guesses to the actual locations? Were you surprised? Why or why not? Do you think that using compasses alone to locate the magnet was the most effective strategy? Explain.
